Mammadayarov chaired OIC's extraordinary meeting

The resolution also denounced the US veto at the UN Security Council that blocked the draft resolution on the massacre and welcomed the UN General Assembly resolution on Friday condemning Israel.

Out of 57 invitations to the member states, 26 OIC member states participated in the meeting, 12 of them at the ministerial level including Palestine and Iran. The meeting was chaired by the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, the chair of the Islamic Summit Conference. The executive committee consists of Azerbaijan, Senegal, Malaysia, Pakistan, Yemen and Qatar.

"This is an important step in the Arab and Islamic stance," Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Al-Zahar told Arab News. "The world is approaching a change in politics, whether in the Arab and Muslim world or the European and American ones. The European initiative two days ago did not talk about recognizing Israel but on a mutual cease-fire."

He said the pressure on Hamas retreated and the talk now for a unified government is forming without surrendering rights for the Palestinian land and its people. As for the internal situation, he assured that the Palestinian people are standing resilient in the face of the occupation.

The 16-point resolution held Israel and its leaders responsible in their personal and legal capacity for what it considered a war crime and called for their prosecution.

It "casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of the American role" and calls for the urgent implementation of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly, including dispatching a mission to investigate the Beit Hanoun massacre and presenting a report to the UN secretary-general within thirty days.

The OIC foreign ministers' resolution also supports and welcomes the resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on Nov. 15 upon the request of the Islamic Group In Geneva that condemned the killing and dispatched a fact-finding mission to the region and calls for accelerating the implementation of its provisions. It also requests the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility in compelling Israel to withdraw its forces from all occupied Palestinian territories, to end its aggression and to provide protection for the Palestinian people and find a just and lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"We aim to break the embargo imposed by some Western countries on the Palestinian people for practicing their democratic right in choosing their government, and there is a shift in public opinion in the West now that we want to address," said OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. "A very important pressure factor on Israel is public opinion and we all have to get that message across."

The OIC chief pointed to the mechanisms adopted in the resolution and the need to avoid mistakes of the past and for diplomatic efforts for opening entry and exit points to the Palestinian territories.

In terms of action and mechanisms, the resolution urges OIC member states, the Islamic Development Bank and private financial institutions to reconstruct the destruction caused in Beit Hanoun and the northern Gaza Strip by Israel and to provide medical treatment for the wounded and other victims.

The resolution asks the OIC secretary-general to convene a meeting of the humanitarian organizations and civil society institutions of the member states to develop a joint program for providing urgent humanitarian assistance. It also called for the convening of a meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War in order to examine the continuing violations and crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories. The resolution also seeks to take adequate measures to compel Israel to assume its responsibility and respect its obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

Similar to the resolution adopted by the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Arab States at the Arab League in Cairo on Nov. 12, the resolutions also seeks to compel Israel to release tax and duty revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, money it stopped paying earlier this year after Hamas was elected to power. The funds, about $50 million a month, are currently held in escrow by Israel.

The OIC resolution also calls for the immediate release of the speaker and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, ministers and leadership and other prisoners in the prisons of the Israeli occupation. It also calls for the convening of an International Peace Conference in the Middle East aimed at finding a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict in the region on all tracks, guaranteeing the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people including their right to the establishment of their independent state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. It mandates the secretary-general of the OIC in collaboration with the chair of the Islamic Summit Conference (ISC), the chair of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), Palestine and interested member states of the executive committee to take the necessary measures to implement the provisions of this resolution. It also decides to review the status of the implementation of this resolution at the subsequent meetings of the executive committee and at the next ICFM in Islamabad.

"The OIC general secretariat will be responsible for putting a program of implementing the resolution and the secretary-general will put suggestions for the following up and the specific steps in coordination with the troika and the participating member states," said Saudi State Minister Of Foreign Affairs Nizar Madani to Arab News. He said the results of the meeting were encouraging. Al-Zahar also said that the results were satisfactory and the mechanisms for implementing it will be through a committee for following up on it. A source with the OIC said that a timeframe for starting and implementing the resolution has not been scheduled because contacts have to be made for forming the committee, but it will be as soon as possible. Arab News